Announcing: XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Zune

We could have rested on our laurels by just announcing the new Xbox LIVE community games and XNA Creators Club Online features, but we’re a driven bunch of people here, and we’re passionate about gaming, so let’s lob another amazing treat out there.

The XNA Community Games Platform team is delighted to offer you a sneak peek at our first major feature for XNA Game Studio 3.0: The ability to build games for the Zune platform!This will let you write one game and deploy it to all three platforms that XNA Game Studio 3.0 will support: the Xbox 360, Windows, and now the Zune.While the Zune lacks the 3D graphics horsepower to drive high-end games like you can on the Xbox 360, we’ve taken extreme steps in making sure that you will have the broadest access to the XNA Framework APIs possible, allowing you to create fun Zune games while still letting you integrate carefully with the overall Zune media experience.That means that XNA Game Studio 3.0 integration includes discoverability/access to the user’s music – allowing the user to customize background soundtracks or create real-time visualizations at their discretion.In addition, the XNA Community Games Platform team has announced the ability to have multiple Zunes wirelessly engage in an ad-hoc gaming experience (think of the possibilities!).

Our current planning is to offer a preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 in the Spring 2008 timeframe, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season.We look forward to your feedback and seeing what kind of amazing games you can create for the Zune!

Will we be required to have a Creator's Club membership to deploy to Zune?

I'd really like to join up and develop a 360/Zune game, but £40 for a trial is very steep, and not something I want to pay to just try something out. Any chance of you guys introducing a lower priced subscription (£10 for 1 month for example)?

Yesterday the XNA team announced that anyone -- not just large, high-paying game publishers - could produce games for the XBox 360 platform, Windows, and the Zune. Of course you've always been able to produce games for Windows, but...